Yellow jackets buzzing, stinging

Elaine Allegrini

Monday

Aug 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2007 at 7:10 PM

A walk in the park, a picnic in the garden or a round of golf can be a stinging experience these days.

Across Southeastern Massachusetts, there has been a surge in yellow jackets and wasps because a lack of rain has kept their below-ground nests from being flooded out – which typically controls their populations. If a walker disturbs a nest, that could set off an attack.

“The (insects) are very angry,” said Laurie Campbell, patient care director at Brockton’s Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center emergency department, where upwards of 10 patients a week are seeking treatment for yellow jacket or wasp stings. That’s a three-fold increase in recent weeks, she said.

Jordan Hospital in Plymouth has also seen an increase in stings, “and patients are having more serious reactions,” spokesman John Looney said.

Yellow jackets are typically most active in late summer and early fall, when their populations peak and they get frantic for food when the caterpillars and flies they feed on earlier in the season are gone.

And this year, the number and their activity is particularly high, according to Deborah Swanson, Plymouth County Extension horticulturist.

“It’s a very bad year,” she said. “I have stopped weeding and planting; I’m very cautious.”

In a recent report, UMass Extension, a public outreach program affiliated with the University of Massachusetts, said dry conditions in Eastern Massachusetts led to the surge of yellow jackets, wasps and other stingers.

Wasps have black and yellow bands on their abdomens. Wasp workers may be confused with honey bees, but do not have dense, brownish-tan hair on their bodies.